Arabic Oud Icon Seeks to 'Change Soul' of Iraq

Iraqi musician Naseer Shamma plays the oud during rehearsals at the Iraqi National Theater in Baghdad on January 17, 2022. (Photo by AHMAD AL-RUBAYE / AFP)
Iraqi musician Naseer Shamma plays the oud during rehearsals at the Iraqi National Theater in Baghdad on January 17, 2022. (Photo by AHMAD AL-RUBAYE / AFP)
TT
20

Arabic Oud Icon Seeks to 'Change Soul' of Iraq

Iraqi musician Naseer Shamma plays the oud during rehearsals at the Iraqi National Theater in Baghdad on January 17, 2022. (Photo by AHMAD AL-RUBAYE / AFP)
Iraqi musician Naseer Shamma plays the oud during rehearsals at the Iraqi National Theater in Baghdad on January 17, 2022. (Photo by AHMAD AL-RUBAYE / AFP)

Long uprooted from his native Iraq, Naseer Shamma, an icon of the Arabic oud, has returned home to help rekindle the flame of Iraqi music, snuffed out by decades of conflict.

"When you are in your own country, you feel very high emotions with the audience," the master string player said in an interview with AFP.

At nearly 60, the virtuoso who studied under late Iraqi oud legend Munir Bashir still appears in awe of his instrument, as well as those that accompany it.

"All those instruments are Iraqi -- you have the santur for example. Each one is from 2000 BC," he said at the national theatre orchestra packed with Iraqi instruments.

"They are very historic instruments and the sound is a very special sound."

Speaking between rehearsals, he added: "There is nostalgia here, with friends. I studied in Baghdad for six years and I always feel more comfortable when I play here."

But such nights in Baghdad have become more of an exception than the rule for Shamma, a native of Kut, in the country's southeast.

Exiled in 1993 under Saddam Hussein, he only returned to Iraq for the first time in 2012.

In the interim, he spent time in Cairo, as well as launching schools of Arabic oud across the Middle East, before settling in Berlin, where he lives now.

Aside from his musical mission, his latest Baghdad performances come with another purpose.

"Now we're playing to help education. My new project is called 'education first'. We need to help Iraqi schools," Shamma said.

As UNICEF has pointed out, "decades of conflict and under-investment in Iraq have destroyed what used to be the best education system in the region and severely curtailed Iraqi children's access to quality learning".

From the Iran-Iraq war of the 1980s to the subsequent international embargoes, the 2003 US-led invasion and the later ISIS takeover, Iraq has struggled to emerge from bloody turmoil.

"And of course, three or four generations paid the price of this," Shamma said.

Despite the sluggish pace of Iraq's recovery and the political disputes that always threaten to erupt into new violence, the musician is hopeful for change.

"We hope that music... will change the soul of people," he said.

While Iraq is still far from its cultural heyday of the 1970s and 80s, it has recently seen a fledgling renaissance, with art galleries opening and book fairs and festivals being held.

"We need to close the bad past and start again a new life with a new memory and a new vision for the future," Shamma said.



New Searches Underway in Portugal Near Where Madeleine McCann Disappeared in 2007

 A Portuguese official during a search operation in a vast area between the cities of Lagos and Praia da Luz for Madeleine McCann, in Lagos, Portugal, 03 June 2025. (EPA)
A Portuguese official during a search operation in a vast area between the cities of Lagos and Praia da Luz for Madeleine McCann, in Lagos, Portugal, 03 June 2025. (EPA)
TT
20

New Searches Underway in Portugal Near Where Madeleine McCann Disappeared in 2007

 A Portuguese official during a search operation in a vast area between the cities of Lagos and Praia da Luz for Madeleine McCann, in Lagos, Portugal, 03 June 2025. (EPA)
A Portuguese official during a search operation in a vast area between the cities of Lagos and Praia da Luz for Madeleine McCann, in Lagos, Portugal, 03 June 2025. (EPA)

Police investigating the disappearance of British toddler Madeleine McCann searched near an abandoned rural building in southern Portugal on Tuesday as they launched fresh probes near the holiday resort where she was last seen 18 years ago.

The case received worldwide interest for several years, with reports of sightings of McCann occurring as far away as Australia, while books and television documentaries were produced about her disappearance.

German investigators and Portuguese police officers and firefighters were searching in the countryside several miles from the Praia da Luz resort, where the 3-year-old disappeared from her bed while on vacation with her family on May 3, 2007.

The teams were seen using pickaxes, shovels and chainsaws to clear dense vegetation and dig near a derelict building. Firefighters pumped water out of a well.

Almost two decades on, investigators in the UK, Portugal and Germany are still piecing together what happened on the night the toddler disappeared. She was in the same room as her brother and sister — 2-year-old twins — while their parents, Kate and Gerry, had dinner with friends outside.

Portuguese police said Monday that detectives were acting on a request from a German public prosecutor as they carry out “a broad range” of searches this week in the area of Lagos, in southern Portugal.

The main suspect is a German national identified by media as Christian Brueckner, who is currently serving a seven-year prison sentence in Germany for raping a 72-year-old woman in Portugal in 2005.

He is under investigation on suspicion of murder in the McCann case but hasn’t been charged. He spent many years in Portugal, including in Praia da Luz, around the time of the child’s disappearance. Brueckner has denied any involvement.

The last time police resumed searches in the case was in 2023, when detectives from the three countries took part in an operation searching near a dam and a reservoir about 50 kilometers (30 miles) from the resort.

McCann's family marked the 18th anniversary of her disappearance last month, and expressed their determination to keep searching.